Virtual Reality Information Delivery System

ABSTRACT

A method for enabling a user to customize, prioritize, and view information filtered to align with the user&#39;s life state that includes interaction with an online market place in a virtual reality environment. The user uses a virtual reality environment provides priority, positioning, and custom information about the user&#39;s life state which allows the user to view information in a life view. The partners may access the information by way of a virtual reality environment and use the information about the user&#39;s life to filter its information according to the information about the user&#39;s life, which is then viewed in a life view by a user in a virtual reality environment, according to the user defined positioning, prioritization, and other custom parameters. The method also enables the user to view partner and user participation in a marketplace to procure the information about the user&#39;s life according to the user&#39;s behavior.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application relates to and claims priority to U.S. ProvisionalApplication, entitled “Virtual Reality Information Delivery System,”filed on Apr. 11, 2017, and having application Ser. No. 62/484,309, theentirety of the application is being incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the field ofuser displayed data and the layout of the data by the use of, and insome embodiments, specifically related to a custom configured portalzones displayed in a virtual reality environment, used in conjunctionwith an information delivery system.

BACKGROUND

Users today rely heavily on the Internet to manage information. Popularinformation portals such as Microsoft's MSN network and Google's iGooglecompete against one another to deliver more customized information tothe users. Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn are also examples ofinformation portal variants, and these portals focus on informationmanagement under the context of relationships. Web portals may beavailable to the users as part of a search engine (e.g., Microsoft Bing,Google, Yahoo) or simply as an information management interface (e.g.,iGoogle). However, advances in technology are allowing access to suchportals in a virtual reality or augmented reality environment.

Generally, the portal may rely on the definition of user preferences,which are used by underlying search engines or partnerships withinformation providing organizations to display information for the user.The information may be rearranged on the portal, somewhat customfiltered, and also coupled with search engine functionality. Accurateinformation is important to the users and correspondingly theadvertisers and/or content providers. The accuracy and utility of theinformation may be based on the filters and preferences selected by theusers and how effective the portal queries and displays the information.When a portal is perceived by a user as accurate and useful, the user ismore likely to continue using the same portal for the user's more staticinformational needs. These methods of displaying information (portals)may be acceptable to the users for general and high level informationneeds. However, these portals fall short in providing a true depictionof a user's life view, and these portals do not demonstrate a deeprelationship between the user, organizations, and information deliveredby the organizations.

As such portals become more pervasive in everyday life, people becomemore isolated from human-to-human interaction. Instead of interactingwith people in the physical world, people become more interested in thechanges occurring on their phones and other mobile devices. This canresult in loneliness and a sense of being disconnected.

What is needed is a method of combining the information displayed andexchanged in the portals with familiar environments or realistic avatarsof the information being displayed, such as can be displayed in avirtual reality environment. In virtual reality environments,information may be displayed in novel ways that are more easily parsedby a user compared to the limited capability of a webpage on a mobiledevice.

SUMMARY

For some embodiments, a method to enable a user to manage an informationlife view that is based on filtered information that dynamicallystructures and displays the information about the user's life in avirtual reality environment, according to the information that is mostrelevant to the user at any given point in time. The life view whichmanages information regarding the user's life view may be referred to asthe user's life view. The user's life view may include many categoricalinformation zones, displayed in a virtual reality environment, andrelated to the user's life view, based on, for example, filters in areassuch as demographic, ethnic, social and psychological aspects. The usermay also interact with the virtual reality environment so as to definethe filters, as part of the SpotMi life view. The user may also definewhich categorical areas display, how the information changes, andcriteria that determines how the categorical zones dynamically change.The user may specify the categories, layouts, and information to changeaccording to the user's life view, which is based on the underlyingSpotMi Information Delivery System. The information category layouts andcontent are prioritized, for example, based on user settings thatdetermine preference, alignment scores derived from the underlyingSpotMi Information Delivery System, and other life view parameters. Forexample, the user can configure future events and important dates todynamically trigger layout changes to display content, relevant to thesedates and events as they approach the current date. The user may alsodefine time-phased rotation of information categories, which can bebased at least on month, season, events, years, career states, orgeography. This embodiment may interface with the underlying SpotMiInformation Delivery System to allow users to rate the alignment for theinformation delivered to the life view. The life view information ispresented to, and modified by, the user via the user's life viewsettings or, in some embodiments, may also include various devices,appliances, and systems to display the user's life view in a virtualreality environment. A marketplace may integrate with the virtualreality portal to allow suppliers of information to push specificinformation to the user's portal, through the underlying SpotMiInformation Delivery System and the SpotMi Information Marketplace.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The multiple drawings refer to the embodiments of the invention. Whileembodiments of the invention described herein are subject to variousmodifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof havebeen shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein bedescribed in detail.

FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a computing device that may be used,in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a network that may be used to pullfiltered information, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example structure of the life view, in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example of a collection life states, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3C illustrates an example of granting access to the life view, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3D illustrates an example diagram of a group of partners, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3E illustrates an example diagram of the life view, in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 3F illustrates an example diagram of Life State Categories,Attributes, and the life view, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates example applications that may be used to enable theusers to receive the filtered information from the partners, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a network with an information deliveryserver, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process that may beperformed by an information delivery system life view to display thelife states, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process that may beperformed by an information delivery system life view to allow the usersto access the filtered information, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process that may beperformed on an information delivery server to enable automaticallyupdating the user's life view, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process used to rate apartner through the life view, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process used to rate auser and convey the rating through the user's life view, in accordancewith some embodiments.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process used to showinformation delivery through the user's life view, in accordance withsome embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For some embodiments, a method for displaying delivered information in avirtual reality environment is disclosed. A virtual reality environmentmay include one that creates a realistic sense of being in another placeor providing an immersive environment within which data may be displayedand organized. Creating such an experience may involve reproducingthree-dimensional (“3D”) video, 3D audio, or other sensory informationfor a virtual reality environment scenario.

The method comprises enabling a user to access a virtual realityenvironment in order to register and become a member of a life viewbased on custom delivered information. Information is displayed in thevirtual reality environment by way of scenarios or avatars projected inthe virtual reality environment. The information displayed is based onparameters the user provides about the user's life, which is also knownas a life state, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,484,098 titled, “Systemfor information delivery facilitating partner rating of users and userratings of partners” and granted Jul. 9, 2013, which is incorporated byreference herein. The user's life state may span many areas including atleast demographic information, ethnic information, social information,behavioral information, and psychological information. The user maygrant third parties permission to deliver information to the user's lifestate. The third parties are also members of the virtual realityenvironment which is coupled to an information delivery system, which inturn delivers information to the user's life view. The third parties mayuse the user's life state to filter information for the user.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth,such as examples of specific data signals, components, connections,virtual reality displays, configurations, etc. in order to provide athorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent,however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may bepracticed without these specific details. In other instances, well knowncomponents or methods have not been described in detail but rather inblock diagrams in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presentinvention. Thus, the specific details set forth are merely exemplary.The specific details may be varied from and still be contemplated to bewithin the spirit and scope of the present invention.

The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specifically constructed forthe required purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type ofdisk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, andmagnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random accessmemories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any typeof media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupledwith a computing system bus. Portions of any modules or componentsdescribed herein may be implemented in lines of code in software,configured logic gates in software, or a combination of both, and theportions implemented in software are tangibly stored on a computerreadable storage medium.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the required method blocks. The required structurefor a variety of these systems will appear from the description below.

In the following description of exemplary embodiments, reference is madeto the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which it isshown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the inventioncan be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments can beused and structural changes can be made without departing from the scopeof the embodiments of this invention. As used herein, the terms“couple,” “connect,” and “attach” are interchangeable and includevarious forms of connecting one part to another either directly orindirectly. Also, it should be appreciated that one or more structuralfeatures described in one embodiment could be implemented in a differentembodiment, even if not specifically mentioned as being a featurethereof.

Computer System

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an example computing system thatmay use an embodiment of one or more of the virtual reality applicationsdiscussed herein, in accordance with some example embodiments. Thecomputing system environment 100 is only one example of a suitablecomputing environment, such as a client device or virtual realityheadset, and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scopeof use or functionality of the design. Neither should the computingenvironment 100 be interpreted as having any dependency or requirementrelating to any one or combination of components illustrated in theexemplary operating environment 100. Embodiments of the invention may beimplemented on any type of computer, device, apparatus, or even machinethat make use of the computer environment 100. For example, the devicemay be a mobile device used in conjunction with a virtual realitygoogles (for example Google's, ‘Google Cardboard’) that displays theuser's medical history or current conditions and optionally shares thisinformation with doctors or insurance companies as directed by the user.

The design is operational with numerous other general purpose or specialpurpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples ofwell-known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations thatmay be suitable for use with the design include, but are not limited to,personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices,virtual reality headsets, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-basedsystems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs,minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environmentsthat include any of the above systems or devices, automotive andinformational appliances, and the like.

The design may be described in the general context of computing deviceexecutable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by acomputer. Generally, the program modules include routines, programs,objects, components, data structures, etc., that perform particulartasks or implement particular abstract data types. Those skilled in theart can implement the description and/or figures herein ascomputer-executable instructions, which can be embodied on any form ofcomputing machine readable media discussed below.

The design may also be practiced in distributed computing environmentswhere tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linkedthrough a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and remotecomputer storage media including memory storage devices.

With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary computing type system forimplementing the design includes a general-purpose computing device inthe form of a computing device 110. Components of computing device 110may include, but are not limited to, a processing unit 120 having one ormore processing cores, a system memory 130, and a system bus 121 thatcouples various system components including the system memory to theprocessing unit 120. The system bus 121 may be any of several types ofbus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheralbus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. By wayof example, and not limitation, such architectures include IndustryStandard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus,Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA)locale bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus.

Computing device 110 typically includes a variety of computing machinereadable media. Computing machine readable media can be any availablemedia that can be accessed by computing device 110 and includes bothvolatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media. Byway of example, and not limitation, computing machine readable mediumsuses include storage of information, such as computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computerstorage mediums include, but are not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flashmemory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD)or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any othermedium which can be used to store the desired information and which canbe accessed by computing device 110. Communication media typicallyembodies computer readable instructions, data structures, programmodules, or other transport mechanism and includes any informationdelivery media.

The system memory 130 includes computer storage media in the form ofvolatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 131and random access memory (RAM) 132. A basic input/output system 133(BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer informationbetween elements within computing device 110, such as during start-up,is typically stored in ROM 131. RAM 132 typically contains data and/orprogram modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presentlybeing operated on by processing unit 120. By way of example, and notlimitation, FIG. 1 illustrates operating system 134, applicationprograms 135, other program modules 136, and program data 137.

The computing device 110 may also include other removable/non-removablevolatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only,FIG. 1 illustrates a hard disk drive 141 that reads from or writes tonon-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive 151that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk 152,and an optical disk drive 155 that reads from or writes to a removable,nonvolatile optical disk 156 such as a CD ROM or other optical media.Other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storagemedia that can be used in the exemplary operating environment include,but are not limited to, USB drives and devices, magnetic tape cassettes,flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, digital video tape, solidstate RAM, solid state ROM, and the like. The hard disk drive 141 istypically connected to the system bus 121 through a non-removable memoryinterface such as interface 140, and magnetic disk drive 151 and opticaldisk drive 155 are typically connected to the system bus 121 by aremovable memory interface, such as interface 150.

The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed aboveand illustrated in FIG. 1, provide storage of computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules and other data for thecomputing device 110. In FIG. 1, for example, hard disk drive 141 isillustrated as storing operating system 144, application programs 145,other program modules 146, and program data 147. Note that thesecomponents can either be the same as or different from operating system134, application programs 135, other program modules 136, and programdata 137. Operating system 144, application programs 145, other programmodules 146, and program data 147 are given different numbers here toillustrate that, at a minimum, they are different copies.

A user may enter commands and information into the computing device 110through input devices such as a keyboard 162, a microphone 163, and apointing device 161, such as a mouse, trackball, or touch pad. In someembodiments, the input device includes a motion sensor such as theMicrosoft® Kinect or another similar device, which allows the user toprovide gesture inputs to the computing device 110. Other input devices(not shown) may include a joystick, game pad, satellite dish, or thelike.

In some embodiments, the computing device 110 includes peripheraldevices for making physical contact with the user to make the virtualreality experience more realistic. The computing device may includegloves for providing the user with tactile sensations that correspond tovirtual reality content. For example, the virtual reality content mayinclude images of another user or object within the virtual realityenvironment and when the user reaches out to touch the object thecomputing device 110 provides pressure or vibrations that make it feellike the user is making physical contact with the object.

In some embodiments the computing device may include other sensor inputdevices (not shown), these may garner data from sources other thandirectly from the user. These sensors may include, by way ofnon-limiting example, distance sensors, motion sensors, locationsensors, global positioning systems (GPS), accelerometers, gyroscopes,or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to theprocessing unit 120 through a user input interface 160 that is coupledto the system bus, but they may be connected by other interface and busstructures, such as a parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus(USB).

The computing device 110 may use data from the sensor input devices totrack the orientation of a user or parts of the user. For example, thecomputing device 110 may include one or more accelerometers orgyroscopes used to detect a change in orientation of the user's headand/or hands. The computing device 110 may then alter the informationdisplayed within the virtual reality environment accordingly. Audioinformation may similarly be modified based on the orientation of thehead and/or hands of the user.

The computing device 110 may provide an immersive viewing experience tothe user. For example, the computing device 110 may include a virtualreality display device 191 or other type of display device connected tothe system bus 121 via an interface, such as a video interface 190. Thevirtual reality display device 191 may have a wide field of view so thatthe user viewing the virtual reality content feels like they aresurrounded by the virtual reality content. A complete 360-degree view ofthe information is provided to the user, allowing the user to orientatetheir head or body to view or not view certain portals or life states ofinformation. Alternatively, a wide viewing angle would allow a user toview multiple portals or life states simultaneously allowing the user tomonitor various information at the same time. By providing a differentview to each eye (e.g., a stream of left panoramic images for left eyeviewing and a stream of right panoramic images for right eye viewing),the computing device 110 may give the user a 3D view of the information.Non-limiting examples of virtual reality displays include stereoscopicdisplays, virtual reality googles, augmented reality glasses;televisions, smartphones, tablets, or the like.

Additionally, 3D surrounding sound may be provided to the user by way ofan audio output device 197, non-limiting examples of which includeactive or passive headphones, speakers, multi-channel speaker systemsand associated amplifiers, or the like. Sound may be altered based onthe user's head orientation to augment the immersive 3D viewingexperience. For example, if a portal or life state is displaying a videoand the user turns to view an alternate portal or life stage, the soundfrom the video may be muted, lowered, or altered to appear to beemanating from behind the user. It is contemplated that additionalperipheral outputs, for example printer 196, may also be connectedthrough an output peripheral interface 190.

The computing device 110 may operate in a networked environment usinglogical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remotecomputer 180. The remote computer 180 may be a personal computer, ahand-held device, a server, a router, a network PC, a virtual realitydevice, a peer device or other common network node, and typicallyincludes many or all of the elements described above relative to thecomputing device 110. The logical connections depicted in FIG. 1 includea local area network (LAN) 171 and a wide area network (WAN) 173, butmay also include other networks. Such networking environments arecommonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets,extranets, and the Internet. A browser application may be resident onthe computing device and stored in the memory.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computing device 110 isconnected to the LAN 171 through a network interface or adapter 170.When used in a WAN networking environment, the computing device 110typically includes a communication module 172 or other means forestablishing communications over the WAN 173, such as the Internet. Thecommunication module 172 may be a modem used for wired, wirelesscommunication or both. The communication module 172 may be internal orexternal, may be connected to the system bus 121 via the user-inputinterface 160, or other appropriate mechanism. In a networkedenvironment, program modules depicted relative to the computing device110, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storagedevice. By way of a non-limiting example, FIG. 1 illustrates remoteapplication programs 185 as residing on remote computer 180. It will beappreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and othermeans of establishing a communications link between the computers may beused.

It should be noted that the present design can be carried out on acomputing system such as that described with respect to FIG. 1. However,the present design can be carried out on a server, a computer devoted tomessage handling, or on a distributed system in which different portionsof the present design are carried out on different parts of thedistributed computing system.

Another device that may be coupled to bus 111 is a power supply such asa battery and Alternating Current adapter circuit. As discussed above,the DC power supply may be a battery, a fuel cell, or similar DC powersource that needs to be recharged on a periodic basis. For wirelesscommunication, the communication module 172 may employ a WirelessApplication Protocol to establish a wireless communication channel. Thecommunication module 172 may implement a wireless networking standardsuch as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11standard, IEEE std. 802.11-1999, published by IEEE in 1999. Otherwireless communication methods that may also be used may includeBluetooth, Radio Frequency, etc.

While other systems may use, in an independent manner, variouscomponents that may be used in the design, a comprehensive, integratedsystem that addresses the multiple advertising system points ofvulnerability described herein does not exist. Examples of mobilecomputing devices may be a laptop computer, a cell phone, a personaldigital assistant, or other similar device with on board processingpower and wireless communications ability that is powered by a DirectCurrent (DC) power source that supplies DC voltage to the mobile deviceand that is solely within the mobile computing device and needs to berecharged on a periodic basis, such as a fuel cell or a battery.

It is possible for some embodiments of the invention to have a computingenvironment 100 that entails memory and display functions without aprocessing function. For example, a third party may provide customizedinformation to a user, which is relayed to a device for display onlywith no data manipulation necessary.

Network Environment

FIG. 2 illustrates a network environment 200 in which the techniquesdescribed may be applied, in accordance with some example embodiments.The network environment 200 has a network 202 that connects servercomputing systems 204-1 through 204-n, and at least one or more clientcomputing systems 208-1 through 208-n. As shown, there may be manyserver computing systems 204-1 through 204-n and many client computingsystems 208-1 through 208-n connected to each other via a network 202,which may be, for example, the Internet. Note, that alternatively thenetwork 202 might be or include one or more of: an optical network, theInternet, a Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), satellitelink, fiber network, cable network, or a combination of these and/orothers. It is to be further appreciated that the use of the terms clientcomputing system and server computing system is for clarity inspecifying who initiates a communication (the client computing system)and who responds (the server computing system). No hierarchy is impliedunless explicitly stated. Both functions may be in a singlecommunicating device, in which case the client-server and server-clientrelationship may be viewed as peer-to-peer. Thus, if two systems such asthe client computing system 208-1 and the server computing system 204-1can both initiate and respond to communications, their communication maybe viewed as peer-to-peer. Likewise, communications between the clientcomputing systems 204-1, 204-2 and the server computing systems 208-1,208-2 may be viewed as peer-to-peer if each such communicating device iscapable of initiation and response to communication. One or more of theserver computing systems 204-1 to 204-n may be associated with adatabase such as, for example, the databases 206-1 to 206-n. A firewallsuch as, for example, the firewall 220 between a client computing system208-3 and the network 202, may be used to protect data integrity.Another firewall example is the firewall 221 positioned between theserver 204-2 and the network 202. Although not shown, other devices(e.g., proxy servers, etc.) may also be connected to the network 202.

FIG. 2 also illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of a servercomputing system to display information, such as a life view portal,etc. A user via a browser from a virtual reality client computing system208-1 may interact with the life view portal, and then supply input tothe query/fields and/or service presented by a user interface of theapplication. The life view portal may be served by a web servercomputing system 204-1 on any Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) orWireless Access Protocol (WAP) enabled virtual reality client computingsystem 208-1 or any equivalent thereof For example, the virtual realityclient computing system 208-1 may be a virtual reality headset, virtualreality goggles used in conjunction with a smart phone or touch pad, alaptop, a netbook, or the like. The virtual reality client computingsystem 208-1 may host a browser to interact with the server computingsystem 204-1. Each application, widget, plug-in, etc. has a codescripted to perform the functions that the software component is codedto carry out such as presenting fields and icons to take details ofdesired information. The life view applications may be hosted on theserver computing system 204-1 and served to the browser of the virtualreality client computing system 208-1. The applications then serve viewsor portals that allow entry of details and further views or portals thatallow entry of more details.

Any application and other scripted code components may be stored on acomputing machine readable medium which, when executed on the servercauses the server to perform those functions. In an embodiment, thesoftware used to facilitate the functions and processes described hereincan be embodied onto a computing machine readable medium such ascomputer readable medium. As discussed above a computing machinereadable medium includes any mechanism that provides (e.g., stores)information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). Forexample, a computing machine readable medium includes read only memory(ROM); random access memory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media; opticalstorage media; flash memory devices; DVD's, EPROMs, EEPROMs, FLASH,magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storingelectronic instructions. The information representing the apparatusesand/or methods stored on the computing machine readable medium may beused in the process of creating the apparatuses and/or methods describedherein.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented interms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on databits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desiredresult. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like. These algorithms may be written in a numberof different software programming languages such as C, C++, SQL, Java,or other variants of such or similar languages. Also, an algorithm maybe implemented with lines of code in software, configured logic gates insoftware, or a combination of both. In an embodiment, the logic consistsof electronic circuits that follow the rules of Boolean Logic, softwarethat contain patterns of instructions, or any combination of both.

It should be noted that the configuration of the diagram illustrated inFIG. 2 is for illustrative purposes only, and the actual configurationsmay vary. There might be different configurations of servers, firewalls,clients, and devices. For example, the devices may include iPads,‘smart’ cars, ‘smart’ TV devices, or the like.

It will be appreciated, however, that all of these and similar terms areto be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merelyconvenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specificallystated otherwise as apparent from the above discussions, it isappreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing termssuch as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or “determining” or“displaying” or the like, refer to the action and processes of acomputing system, or similar electronic computing device, thatmanipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic)quantities within the computing system's registers and memories intoother data similarly represented as physical quantities within thecomputing system memories or registers, or other such informationstorage, transmission or display devices.

Overview

As the Internet continues to evolve into a more intelligent network ofinformation, there remains a significant gap between what the users wantand what or how the information is delivered and viewed by the users.Information is viewed by various portals or customized views. Currentportals and custom views have many limitations that embodiments of thepresent invention address. Following are some of the factors regardingthe limitations of the current search techniques: (a) users may notaccurately understand when they should submit a query or that theirsituation requires a query; (b) It is almost impossible to use accuratesearch terms or keywords in a way that will yield exactly what the usersare looking for; (c) Even if the accurate search terms are provided,changes in the user's Life State or the information environment maycause what is considered accurate during one time period to becomeinaccurate during another time period; (d) Because of a user's privacyrights, the information delivered to a portal or customized view willalways be inadequate by failing to accurately take into considerationfactors hidden or limited by the privacy rights; (e) Because of privacyrights, the information provided on portals or custom views will beinvasive to a user's privacy rights, as the current method of managingprivacy rights is flawed; f) There are no user feedback mechanisms tobilaterally advise the portal or custom view information providers oftheir accuracy, allowing the providers to more effectively tailor theirresults for each user; (g) Since the number of organizations and indexedinformation is theoretically infinite, there are insufficient mechanismsthat causes the providers of portal or custom view information to use amethod of continuous improvement and focus to yield fewer more relevantquery results. Instead, there is the appearance of some relevantinformation that has varying degrees of accuracy; (h) There areinsufficient methods or instruments that allow information in a portalor custom view to change, update, or morph according to the user'sinformational requirements (driven by the user's situation, querycriteria, or changes that modify the relevance of the query); (i) Thereare insufficient methods or instruments that allow the structure,sequencing, and order of the components and sections of the portal orcustom view to change, reorder, or rehash what or how the information isdisplayed, according to the user's information requirements (driven bythe user's situation, query criteria, or changes that modify therelevance of the query); (j) There are no feedback mechanisms thatconvey to the user the relevance and accuracy of the informationdelivered, as compared to the user's Life State and situation, which isdisplayed in the portal or custom view.

Embodiments of the invention fully utilize the information about auser's life to enable delivering of filtered and customized information,through dynamically changing areas within the life view, according tothe changes in the user's life, to the users. The information about theuser's life is also referred to as a life state, while how theinformation is used, displayed, ordered, and filtered is referred to asthe life view. The life state may consist of many categories, which aredynamically used and updated by the life view. A user may grant thirdparties access to the user's life state by setting security features andgatekeeping features. As will be described, embodiments of the presentinvention may include an information delivery system that deliversfiltered information to the users. The information delivery systemenables third parties to have access to the users' life states, asallowed in transactions between the users and the third parties. Eachuser is associated with a unique life state. The life state is used asfilters or as a basis for customized services (e.g., web sites, emails,etc.). Embodiments of the invention also include an architecture thatincludes a centralized server computer system connected to the Internetand configured to deliver information to the users. The centralizedserver computer system is referred to herein as an information deliveryserver. The information delivery server may be configured to provide theusers a life state interface to enable the users to provide the valuesfor the attributes and sub-attributes associated with their life states.The information delivery server is coupled with a database configured tostore the values for the attributes and the sub-attributes. Theinformation delivery server is configured to provide the users aninterface to configure their own portals, which are referred to as theusers' life view. The users may use their life views to view thefiltered information. In some embodiments, the filtered information maybe displayed in a virtual reality environment in the form of avatars. Anavatar may represent a user's life view, a partner, or a combination orgroup of other users and partners. The avatars may be a graphicalrepresentation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. Theavatar may be fanciful (e.g., a graphical representation of the userthat does not look like the user in real life) or realistic (e.g., agraphical representation of the user that looks similar or has somesimilar characteristics of the user in real life). Realistic avatars maybe photorealistic or merely suggestive of the user as the user exists inreal life. The avatar may be used to display some or all of theinformation about the user. The information delivery server may also beconfigured to enable the users and the third parties to rate oneanother. Replication may be involved to make access, delivery and updateoperations by the information delivery server more efficient.

The computing device 110 may include hardware or software to monitor themovement of the user in the real world. The user may be able to controlthe movement of their avatar by their body movement, head movement orfacial expression. For example, the user moves a portion of their bodyin the real word and computing device 110 causes the avatar to move acorresponding portion of its body in the virtual reality environment.

Life State

FIG. 3A illustrates an example structure of a life view, in accordancewith some embodiments. A life view may display many category sections,custom category sections, or dynamic category sections. Each categorysection may consist of many attributes. Each attribute may consist ofmany sub-attributes. Together, the category sections, the attributes,and the sub-attributes may conceptually display information about theuser from many different views. The category sections, attributes andsub-attributes may be related to one another in a top-down relationshipand/or laterally—enhancing the interpretations of each attribute value.The category sections, the attributes, and the sub-attributes may bedisplayed as defined by the user's criteria, Life State, and theinformation delivered. In some embodiments, they may also vary based onstandards and changes by industry authorities, since industryauthorities play a major role in delivering information to a user's LifeState.

Referring to FIG. 3A, the life view may consist of view positioningstates 310. Although not illustrated, a view positioning state mayconsist of many deeper levels of positioning states. For example, underthe positioning state 1, there be view positioning state 1.1, viewpositioning state 1.2, view positioning state 1.1.2, etc. A life viewderives multiple categories, attributes, and sub-attributes from a lifestate. A life state may consist of multiple categories 315. It isenvisaged that each of the many aspects of a user's life can be mappedto a category of the life state, which may be used by a view positioningstate. Each of the categories 315 may consist of many attributes 320 andsub-attributes 325. Although not illustrated, each of the sub-attributes325 may consist of many deeper levels of sub-attributes. For example,under the sub-attribute 1, there may be sub-attribute 1.1, sub-attribute1.2, etc. The categories, attributes, and/or sub-attributes may bedynamic and may be displayed by life view, according to the lifepositioning states. For example, new categories, attributes, and/orsub-attribute values may be added, removed, or moved to anothercategory, attribute, or sub-attribute. The life positioning viewdefinition that is connected to that category, attribute, orsub-attribute will determine how and where the changed, moved, added, orremoved values are displayed. The ability to view the updatedcategories, the attributes and the sub-attributes illustrate the dynamicnature of the life view.

View positioning states may alter how and to what extent the life viewdisplays life state categories, attributes, and sub-attributes. Viewpositioning states may use life state categories, attributes, orsub-attributes. View positioning states may also use information about auser's life view preferences that is mutually exclusive of life statecategories, attributes, and sub-attributes. View positioning states mayalso be used in combination with each other. Following are some possibleview positioning states. There may be a view positioning state“Sports-Participation” which may be used to place a higher positioningpriority in the user's life view for life state category, attribute, orsub-attribute information relating to sports programs the user isparticipating in. “Sports-Dependents-Participation” may be used to placehigher positioning priority in the user's life view for life stateinformation relating to sports programs that a life state user'sdependents are participating in. A view positioning state“Auto-Purchase” may be used to place a higher positioning priority inthe user's life view for life state information relating to userspecific automobile related information. View positioning states mayalso be used in combination with each other. For example, there may beview positioning states “Health-Condition” and “Work-TemporaryLocations”, where the “Health-Condition” view positioning state mayprioritize a user's life state category, attribute, or sub-attributesrelating to a chronic condition, and the “Work-Temporary Locations” viewpositioning state may also cause relevant medical facilities to beprioritized that relate to the chronic condition in the“Health-Condition” view positioning state, but may be derived from theuser's temporary work location which may be defined in the“Work-Temporary Locations” view positioning state. View positioningstates may have dates they are effective or not effective, active or notactive, and other criteria that may relate to the view positioningstate, a relationship with one or more other view positioning states, orrelationships with categories, attributes, or sub-attributes from theuser's life state. For some embodiments, the values for the viewpositioning states, attributes and sub-attributes may be automaticallyprovided. Other example view positioning states, categories, attributes,or sub-attributes are included in the corresponding provisionalapplication which is described in the related application section at thetop of this document.

As the user's life changes, the values for the user's life state,categories, attributes, sub-attributes may be updated, which may updatethe user's life view. As the life state, categories, attributes orsub-attributes change, the view positioning states may determine how andif the life state, category, attribute or sub-attribute information isdisplayed in the user's life view. For example, the view positioningstate may determine the categories, attributes, or sub-attributes thatmay be displayed because of a state of a user's life, which may bedetermined by information in the user's categories, attributes, orsub-attributes, or by a date or range of dates, by current events, byaging, by affiliations, memberships, hereditary relationships, socialrelationships, professional relationships, event outcomes, physicalstates, location, or other life related states. For some embodiments,the categories, attributes and sub-attributes may be automaticallypositioned. The number combinations of categories, attributes, andsub-attributes (and deeper levels of sub-attributes) may be extensive,and may represent a snap shot of the life of a user, which may requireview positioning state filtering. It may be noted that this is differentfrom the traditional portals displayed/used by current systems since theinformation included in a traditional portal is very limited and onlychanges based on some discrete user-defined, simple parameters. Forexample, a traditional portal may display a user's investment holdingsfor a specific company or exchange, the zip code defined local weather,or a list of local movies currently playing. Following in example, thelife view may display all local movie listings all of the time, if theview positioning state is defined in this matter. Continuing to followon this example, the view positioning state may be enhanced to onlydisplay the movie listings on certain days of the week and may also onlydisplay the movies that have certain user specific categories,attributes and sub-attributes that are specifically relevant to theuser, as may be defined in the user's life state. An option may beprovided to enable the users to select using the automatic setting oflife view parameters. For example, a new user may select this option tospeed up the process of setting up the user's life view. The user maythen update the life positioning state values as necessary. The lifeview may be configured to provide interview tools, wizards, orapplications that gather and map the information about the life view tothe relevant positioning states, life view areas, attributes andsub-attributes.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example of a life view 330, in accordance withsome embodiments. The life views 330 and life states 325 may representthe life views and states of many users. The life view information isderived from the life state information. In the current example, thecollection of life view 330 includes life states 325, which includes thelife states 350 and 355. The funnel shape associated with each of thelife states 350 and 355 illustrates the concept of using a life state tofunnel or filter the information into the life view 330. The life statehelps funneling the information available from the third parties so thatonly filtered information is pushed by the third parties. In otherwords, the life state enables the third parties to push the right typeof information to the user. The positioning states determine howinformation is displayed in each life view area. Positioning states maybe defined, use information in a category, attribute, or sub-attributefrom the life state 325, or be a combination of positioning statedefinition and life state 325 information. For example, a user maydefine a positioning state to display the current movies playing intheir area, and the list of movies may be ordered by movies that theuser would enjoy seeing the most according to the life state 325information.

The life view may also be used in other portals or compilations of auser's information. In the case of other portal web sites, the life viewenables other web sites to display customized information views that mayinclude information and life view settings matching what the user isinterested in. In the case of search using a search engine, the lifeview may enhance the search results generated by the search engine.

FIG. 3C illustrates an example of third party information beingdelivered to the user's life view with some embodiments. A user hascomplete control how the access to the user's life state is granted. Thegranting of the access can be at the category level, the attributelevel, the sub-attribute level, or combinations thereof. A third partycan be granted permission to access various areas of the user's lifestate. The third party uses and delivers information to the useraccording to the life state security and gate keeping attributes.

As illustrated, the life state is populated with information deliveredby third parties 330, 332, 334, 336, and 338. The arrows from the thirdparties to the user's categories 310, attributes 348, and sub-attributes342 indicate information delivered to the user, according to the user'ssecurity and gatekeeping attributes defined in the life state. Thepositioning states 350 may determine third party or other filters,grouping, display characteristics, frequencies, and other parameters forthe user's life view 360. The life view may display information frommultiple third parties, as defined by the positioning states. Thepositioning states may include dynamic information delivered from thethird parties. Positioning states may also include information regardingthe delivered information quality and alignment. For example, a user mayselect to display new product introductions relating to laptops for thatweek, and the third party that delivers the information to the user withthe highest alignment and quality from the user's life state may beselected in the positioning state as the highest priority to displayinformation in a given life view area.

FIG. 3D illustrates an example diagram of a group of partners, inaccordance with some embodiments. The diagram includes life viewssimilar to the life views described with FIG. 3B. For some embodiments,a third party may have to be approved before it can be grantedpermission to one or more access groups, where a life view may displayinformation from those access groups. A set of criteria may be used toevaluate and approve a third party. The set of criteria may bedetermined by a management team or an administrator associated with theinformation delivery system, which in turn supplies the life view withinformation. For example, the criteria may include one or more of thefollowing: the ability of the third party to provide information to theusers according to their life states, the type of service, merchandiseand/or information that the third party is offering and whether they mapto the categories, attributes and sub-attributes defined by the lifestate structure, the ability of the third party to map its services andinformation to the life state structure, the reputation of the thirdparty, the likelihood that the third party will continue to perform as apartner and a leader in the category/attribute/sub-attribute that it isassigned to, etc. Other criteria may also be used. This criteriadetermines the extent, quality, and type of information that is suppliedto the life view, through the life state.

Once a third party is approved, it becomes a partner. A license may begranted to the third party. The license may give the third partypermission to copy the users' life states for a defined period. Theremay be an expiration date, and the license may need to be renewed. Thethird parties use the copies of the life states to filter itsinformation, which may be displayed through the life view, or the thirdparties may customize its web site for the users when the users visitthe websites of the third parties. Depending on the actions of a thirdparty, a license may be active, suspended, or revoked. Other licensestatus may also be used. Security credentials including useridentification (ID) and password may be assigned to an approved thirdparty. A third party who has been approved is referred to herein as apartner. For some embodiments, only those partners whose status isactive may be granted permission to access the users' life states. Theremay be different types of partner. For example, a partner may be anindividual, an organization, a governmental agency, etc. The partnersmay also be defined based on the type of services they offer. Forexample, the type “Search Engines” may be used for Microsoft and Googlewhen they become partners, and the partner type “Government” may be usedwhen the Medicare office may want to access the users' life states forbenefits administration. The information delivered by these partners,through the user's life state, is displayed in the user's life view withthe embodiments described herein.

In the current example, the block 324 represents all of the partners.They include the partners 360, 361 and 362. These partners have beengranted permission to the life state 370. The life state may feed intoone or multiple life views as defined by the user and embodimentsherein. As described with FIG. 3C, the level of permission of each ofthe partners 360, 361 and 362 may be different. The directions of thearrows from the partners 360, 361 and 362 to the life state 370illustrate the filtering of the information from the partners. For someembodiments, the partners may push information to the users, which maybe displayed in the user's life view, and they may also offer auto-loadprogram that automatically populates user attributes in the life state,which may be displayed in the user's life view. For example, Amazon.commay push information to a user (such as new technology productreleases), and Amazon.com may also offer an auto-load program thatpopulates attributes relating to technology adoption, asset inventory,etc. In either case, this information pushed by Amazon may be displayedin the user's life view, defined by the user and the embodiments herein.

FIG. 3E illustrates an example diagram of a life view, in accordancewith some embodiments. The information delivery server may be configuredto receive the filtered information from the partners 324 on behalf ofthe users and present that information to the user via their life views370. Each user is associated with a life view. In the current example,the life view 351 is associated with the life state 350, the life view356 is associated with the life state 355, and the life view 361 isassociated with the life state 360. To access the filtered information,the users may need to log in to the information delivery server usingtheir user IDs and passwords. The filtered information may also bestored as floating variable, cache, memory, etc. on any device or systemthat accesses the filtered information. The directions of the arrowsfrom the life states 350, 355 and 360 to the respective life views 351,356 and 361 illustrate the flow of the filtered information to the lifeviews. The information available via the life view 351 may be differentfrom the information available via the life view 356 because the lifestate 350 may be different from the life state 355. FIG. 3E alsoillustrates the overall concepts of embodiments of the present inventionwhere the collection of life states 325 is used to filter theinformation from the partners 324 to create the filtered information (ora subset of the information of the partner), where the filteredinformation is presented to the users via the life views 370. For someembodiments, the pulling of the filtered information from the partnersis automatic. Some embodiments may include partners' portals pulling thefiltered information.

Server Applications

FIG. 4 illustrates example applications that may be used to enable theusers to receive the filtered information from the partners, inaccordance with some embodiments. The information delivery server 400may include user administration application 401, life state application405, partner interface application 410, information filteringapplication 415, life view application 420, change alert application425, rating application 430 and marketplace application 435. It may benoted that even though these applications are described herein asseparate applications, the functionalities of two or more of them may becombined into one application. These applications may be used to pullfiltered information from various resources. The resources may includeInternet websites associated with the partners. Non-Internet resourcesmay also be used. For example, a user's life state may be replicated ondevices, appliances, or any means that allows the user to control how togrant permission to the user's life state, the third parties to accessthe user's life state, and the pushing of the filtered information bythe third parties on behalf of the user. It may be noted that not everydevice or appliance used in embodiments of the invention is a filteredinformation pushing mechanism. That is, some devices may be registeredin the core system to receive the pushed information, and then thedevices may only functions in the ecosystem as a conduit for the pushingof the filtered information to the users.

The life states of all of the users may be securely stored in thedatabase associated with the information delivery server 400 and in arelational structure with tables and fields arranged in ways that arelogical and meaningful to the user. When the users update their lifestates, the updated values may be stored in the same database. It ispossible that the updates may also be propagated to the life view andother replicated systems, devices, appliances that locally store thevalues, as well as third parties that customize their web sitesaccording to these values. This propagation would be similar to a changetrigger.

For some embodiments, a copy of the user's life view may be downloadedand stored in the memory of the client computing system associated withthe user. The copy in the client computing system is referred to as alocal copy of the life view. It is possible that, in some embodiments,only a portion of the information or only related information may bestored in the client computing system. This is because getting the exactcopy may be too big. Sometimes it might be just the user ID that'sstored in floating variables, memory, cache, etc., which then pulls theuser's life state when needed.

The partner interface application 410 may be configured to enable theinformation delivery server 400 to communicate with one or more serversof the partners. For example, this may enable the partners to access theusers' life states as defined by the users' gate keeping and securityfeatures. This may include interfacing with the partners to enable theusers' life views, customized websites, filtered search results, etc.

The information filtering application 415 may be configured to share thelife states of a user with the partners, limited to the level ofpermission granted by the user. The information filtering application415 may also be configured to apply the security and the gate keepingfeatures set by the user. As described, the partners may use the user'slife state to filter their information. The information filteringapplication 415 may receive the filtered information from the partnersand present the filtered information to the user via the user's lifeview. As will be described, the partners may procure the life states viaa marketplace.

The life view application 420 may be configured to allow the users todefine how the information provided to the users may be presented andviewed, according to the embodiments herein. The life view application420 may be configured to provide a layout interface or avatar to allowthe user to design the look and feel of the user's life view within thevirtual reality environment according to user defined settings anddynamic settings that change according to the user's life state. Thelayout interface may include parameters to control the fields, links anddimensions of the layout. The user may define multiple layouts,scenarios or avatars that change according to event rules defined by theuser and the user's life state. For example, the user may defineparameters that cause the layout to emphasize on financial and economicinformation when there is a significant swing in the financial market.The layout interface may allow the user to define different informationregions that change according to user defined settings and the user'slife state. Each of the information regions may focus on the informationthat corresponds to one or more aspects of the user's life. Someembodiments may include an online store where users can purchasedifferent layouts or avatars. For example, a user may choose an ‘office’layout where preferred financial information is collated and displayed.A user may then be able purchase different office furniture, businessoutfits for their avatar, or scenic views that are displayed from theiroffice windows. As mentioned, each of the users may be associated with alife view. The user accesses the life view by logging into theinformation delivery system using the assigned user ID and password. Thelife views, their configurations, layouts, and information regions maybe stored in the database associated with the information deliveryserver 400.

The change alert application 425 may be configured to notify thepartners and the users whenever there is a change that may affect theprocess of proving the filtered information to the users, and thechanges may be reflected in the user's life view. The changes mayoriginate from the partners and/or users. For example, the change may benecessary to address complaints or suggestions from many users and/orpartners, and the changes may block or alter the information provided bythat partner in the user's life view. The changes may originateinternally by a management team associated with the information deliverysystem to enhance the information filtering services for the partnersand/or the users, and the enhancements may be reflected in the user'slife view. For example, it may be necessary to add a new category, tomigrate an attribute from one category to another category, to delete anattribute, to change the meaning of an attribute, etc., and the changesmay be reflected in the user's life view. The changes may originateexternally by others. The change alert application 425 may also beconfigured to notify a partner when the user modifies the user's lifestate, and the changes may be reflected in the user's life view.Similarly, the change alert application 425 may notify a user when thepartner's ability to provide its information is modified.

The rating application 430 is configured to improve the quality of thefiltered information. This includes providing a mechanism to allow theusers to rate the partners as well as a mechanism to allow the partnersto rate the users. The rating of the partners is based on whether thefiltered information pulled from the partners is aligned with the lifestates of the users. The rating may be based on a collection offeedbacks from many users. This helps the partners to fine tune theirfiltering mechanism if they receive low ratings. This also helpsidentifying the partners who consistently fail to comply with thefiltering requirements. The user's life view may also allow users torate partners and delete or hide partner delivered information from theuser's life view, according to the partner's information quality. Forexample, a partner who provides unsolicited advertising informationshould get a low rating and the user may delete or hide the partner'sinformation from the life view, because it abuses the informationdelivery system. A consequence for a partner who gets a low rating is asuspension or revocation of its license, and the user's life view maydelete or hide the partner's information by the user's directmodification to the life view or by the user's designation of the lowrating in the user's life state. Following are some conceptual examplesof the ratings for a partner, and these ratings may be viewed, modified,or accessed in the user's life view or the user's life state:

-   -   None—The information from the partner is not aligned with the        user's life state    -   Low—The information from the partner is minimally aligned with        the user's life state    -   Moderate—The information from the partner is mostly aligned with        the user's life state    -   High—The information from the partner is significantly aligned        with the user's life state

In order for a user to receive accurate filtered information, it may benecessary for the user to keep the user's life state updated or utilizeautomatic loader programs that accomplish the same. This is because theuser is rated based on whether the user's life state is aligned with theuser's behavior whenever applicable. If a partner determines that theuser's life state is not accurate, the partner may notify the user ofthe alignment issue, through a system of ratings. This notification maybe visible in the user's life view. If the user's behavior remainsnon-aligned with the user's life state for an extended period of time,the information provided to the user may be limited or less accurate.Following are some conceptual examples of the ratings for a user, andthese ratings may be viewed, modified, or accessed in the user's lifeview or the user's life state:

-   -   None—The user's transactions are not aligned with the user's        life state    -   Low—The user's transactions are minimally aligned with the        user's life state    -   Moderate—The user's transactions are mostly aligned with the        user's life state    -   High—The user's transactions are significantly aligned with the        user's life state

The marketplace application 435 may be configured to implement anexchange or a market where the users and the partners participate insell and buy transactions. In some embodiments, the marketplace may beimplemented as a secure web portal that enables the partners to procurethe users' life state according to the security, gatekeeping, andmarketplace features. For some embodiments, the marketplace application435 may be implemented as an auction portal with bidding and purchasingoptions. Other purchasing options (e.g., fixed price, etc.) may also beused. The auction portal may allow searchable bids and reverse bids bythe partners and the users. Bid information may be stored in the secureddatabase associated with the information delivery server. The user'smarketplace transactions and activity may be displayed in the user'slife view.

Security and Gatekeeping Features

A partner may access the life states of the user according to the user'ssecurity and gatekeeping features. Referring to FIG. 3D, a user may usethe security feature 371 and the gatekeeping feature 372 within the lifestate 370 to control how the information is filtered so that the user'slife view will receive the most relevant and most desirable information.The user may use the security feature 371 to control the visibility atthe global level, partner level, category level, attribute level orsub-attribute level. The security features set at the global level applyto all categories, attributes, and sub-attributes. The security featuresset at the category level apply to all corresponding attributes andsub-attributes. The security features set at the attribute level applyto all corresponding sub-attributes and so on. When there is adifference among the settings of the security features, the settings ofthe security features at the lower level takes precedence over thesettings of the security features at the corresponding higher level. Forexample, if a user sets a value at the global level, and then setsanother value at the category level, the value at the category levelwill determine the setting of the security features. Following are someexamples settings of the security features:

-   -   Not available—No information relating to the category,        attribute, or sub-attribute is available to any partner or any        other parties to deliver information to the user's life view    -   Available only to preferred/approved list—No information        relating to the category, attribute, or sub-attribute is        available to any partner or other parties unless they are        included in the user's list of approved or preferred partners        and/or parties to deliver information to the user's life view    -   Available—Information relating to the category, attribute, or        sub-attribute is available to any partner to deliver information        to the user's life view    -   Available to content providers—No information relating to the        category, attribute, or sub-attribute is available to any        partner to deliver information to the user's life view unless        the partner is a content provider or the partner is in the list        of approved or preferred content providers    -   Available to advertisers—No information relating to the        category, attribute, or sub-attribute is available to any        partner to deliver information to the user's life view unless        the partner or other party is an advertiser or is in the user's        list of approved or preferred advertisers

The gatekeeping feature 372 illustrates an option that a user may use tocontrol how much information the user is willing to receive from whichpartners into the user's life view. The user may use the gatekeepingfeature 372 to control how an attribute can be used to filterinformation from a partner and the volume of the information deliveredto the user's life view. The gatekeeping features set at the globallevel apply to all categories, attributes, and sub-attributes. Thegatekeeping features set at the category level apply to allcorresponding attributes and sub-attributes. The gatekeeping featuresset at the attribute level apply to all corresponding sub-attributes andso on. When there is a difference among the settings of the gatekeepingfeatures, the gatekeeping features set at the lower level takesprecedence over the gatekeeping features set at the corresponding higherlevel. For example, if a user sets a gatekeeping value at the globallevel, and then set another conflicting gatekeeping value at thecategory level, the gatekeeping value at the category level willprevail. Some examples of the gatekeeping features settings include:

-   -   No gatekeeping—All of the information is passed to the user's        life state and then to the user's life view through the funnel    -   Approved list—The information is passed to the user's life state        and then to the user's life view if the information is from a        partner that is in the list of the user's approved or preferred        pal bier    -   Content providers—The information is passed to the user's life        state and then to the user's life view if the information is        from a partner who is a content provider or if the partner is in        the user's list of approved or preferred content providers    -   Advertisers—The information is passed to the user's life state        and then to the user's life view if the information is from an        advertiser or if the information is from a partner who is in the        user's list of approved or preferred advertisers.    -   None—No information is passed to the user's life state and then        to the user's life view

For some embodiments, there may also be many other gatekeeping controls,such as frequency and precedence controls that will affect how thesystem queues up information from partners for the user's lifeview—which will be a key control in promoting partners to only push theinformation that really counts, while the user receives only theinformation that really counts.

In general, gatekeeping features are different from security in thatthey determine how information is delivered and displayed to the user'slife view. This includes controlling the frequency, extent, type, andvolume of filtered information that is pushed by the partner. This iswhere the marketplace implementation becomes important. When a userwants to allow information for a specific attribute to be sold in themarketplace, but no information is delivered for that attribute, thenthe security settings would allow visibility in the marketplace, and thegatekeeping settings would not allow information delivery to the portal(or when surfing to external sites).

Automatic Populating and Updating Attribute Values

For some embodiments, the life state application 405 described with FIG.4 may be configured to auto-populate the attributes and sub-attributeswith values. The values may be derived from the partners. It is possiblethat the partners may accumulate extensive information about a user'sbehavior, which in turn gives them the ability to populate the usersattribute values according to this behavior. For example, a set ofattributes for a user's asset inventory may include various products,etc. Amazon.com could easily populate the asset inventory according tothe user's purchase history. A user's behavior may also be accumulatedby the user's life view, by tracking which links or other interactions auser makes within their life view. There may be an option to allow theuser to select the auto-populating feature.

For some embodiments, the life state application 405 described with FIG.4 may be configured to automatically update the life state of a user.There may be a setting that enables the user to indicate that theautomatic update of the user's life state is allowed. The updates may bebased on transactions that the user engages in or behavior the userengages in while using their life view, and may be performedperiodically. It is possible that user's behavior may not be consistentwith the user's life state. For example, the user indicates in the lifestate category and attribute values that would lead to avoidance ofwater sports related transaction behavior. However, through the user'slife view, the user frequently views websites that relate to watersports. In this scenario, the life state application 405 may modify theuser's life state to align with the user's behavior. This may includeautomatically translating a user's life view behavior and interactioninto values for the attributes and/or sub-attributes. The user can alsoreview, assess, and override any values that are set from an autoupdate, if the manual setting of the values better reflects the user'slife state. This ensures that the user's life state is up to date, asrealized through the user's behavior in the life view.

For some embodiments, the functionality of auto-updating andauto-loading can initially be set to baseline values, but it can alsoupdate attribute values at the users' discretion. By way of non-limitingexample, such baseline values may include either quantitative values,such as 1 to 10 or 0% to 100%, or qualitative values, such assmall-medium-large or strongly disagree-somewhatdisagree-indifferent-somewhat agree-strongly agree, or the like Theremight be options or parameters on the auto-update program such as “Donot update values that have been manually updated.” This would mean onlynull values or those previously set by the auto-update program would beupdated.

Network with Partner Servers

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a network with an information deliveryserver, in accordance with some embodiments. The network may include aninformation delivery server 505 coupled with database 510 and connectedto network 202. Also connected to the network 202 are client computingsystems 500 and 501, partner servers 515 and 525 and their respectivedatabases 520 and 530. The client computing systems 500, 501 may beconfigured with browser software to access the services of theinformation delivery server 505 using the Internet. The client computingsystems 500, 501 may be connected to the network 202 via wired orwireless communication (e.g., RF, Bluetooth, etc.). For example, a usermay use the virtual reality client computing system 500 to register withthe information delivery server 505, input values to configure theuser's life state, and set up security features and gatekeepingfeatures, which in turn provide information to the user's life view. Theuser may use the virtual reality client computing system 500 to log into the information delivery server 505 and access the user's life viewto view the filtered information. The user's life state, life view,security features, gatekeeping features, and filtered information may bestored in the database 510. The network infrastructure described in FIG.5 may also be used to enable accessing partner websites, partnercontent, performing web searches from within the life view using partnersearch engines, and enabling the partners to participate in themarketplace to procure the life state information.

Embodiments of the invention may also include mobile-enabledimplementations to enable the users to user the mobile devices tocommunicate with the information delivery server. As illustrated in FIG.5, the mobile virtual reality device 500 may be used by a user toconnect to the information delivery server 505 via the network 202. Byway of a non-limiting example the virtual reality device 500 may includea mobile device used in conjunction with a virtual reality googles, suchas Google's Google Cardboard, Samsung's Gear VR or the like. Having themobile capability may enable the users to provide updates on an impulsebasis, especially at a time when the user is experiencing something thatmay need to be reflected in the user's life state. The informationdelivery server 505 may enable the user to download a mobile applicationfor this purpose. The mobile application may include user interface thatmakes it easier to provide information about the user's experience. Forexample, the user may be watching a movie, and the user may use thevirtual reality mobile device to indicate the name of the movie and howmuch the user enjoys watching that movie. That action will be analyzedby the information delivery server and the user's entertainmentattribute may be updated. These embodiments may be immediately availableand reflected in the user's life view.

In some embodiments, the user travels to places in the real world whilealso carrying a mobile virtual reality device that includes a globalpositioning system chip (GPS chip) to track the user's movements. Themobile virtual reality device synchronizes the GPS data describing theuser's travels to the information delivery server 505 via the network202. The information delivery server 505 then updates the user's lifestate with the locations visited by the user. Other methods besides GPSmay be used to obtain location data, for example, WiFi signals. In someembodiments, the user tags locations they have visited in a socialnetwork. The information delivery server 505 then updates the user'slife state with the locations tagged by the user.

Mirroring and Distributed Processing

Referring to FIG. 5, in some embodiments, there may be one or moremirrored servers 506 configured to perform tasks similar to theinformation delivery servers 505 to accommodate the demand and usage bymany users. These mirrored servers may be located at differentgeographical areas. For example, at a first site, there may be one ormore mirrored servers 506. Each of the mirrored servers 506 may beassociated with a mirrored database 511 which may be configured to storeinformation similar to the database 510. Further, there may be multiplemirrored sites, each having similar hardware and software configurationand set up as the first site. The multiple sites may collaborate withone another in a distributed manner to help speed up the processenabling the users to set up and maintain their life states, interactingwith the partner servers, receiving the filtered information from thepartners, enabling the users to configure their life views, presentingthe filtered information to the users' life views, etc. Using mirroredservers and distributed processing may help the users to view mostrelevant and accurate filtered information in their life views in nearreal time.

It should be noted that there are many different distributed processingarchitectures and the description provided here is not meant to limit toa particular architecture, but rather to convey that distributedprocessing may be implemented to provide better user experience for someembodiments.

Flow Diagrams

FIGS. 6-11 describe various processes that may be performed by theinformation delivery system and life view. Each process includesmultiple blocks, with each block representing one or more operations.The sequences of the blocks may vary depending on the implementations.Some operations may be combined while some operations may be separatedinto multiple operations.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process that may beperformed by an information delivery system to set up the life views, inaccordance with some embodiments. The process is associated withoperations that may be performed by the information delivery server 505described with FIG. 5. At block 605, the structure of a life view isdefined. This may include defining the categories, the attributes, thesub-attributes, the sub-attributes, the life positioning states, thelife positioning priorities, and any deeper level of life positioningstates and positioning priorities. For example, each of the attributes,sub-attributes, life positioning states, and life positioning prioritiesmay be represented by fields in a database table with each of the fieldshaving a value or as programming variables in RAM or cache, or as otherembodiments. The life view parameters may take different forms accordingto how a life view is defined, such as, by way of non-limiting example,a web page or in another device, or the like. Each time a new user isregistered with the information delivery server 505, a life view may beassociated with that user, as shown in block 610. The attributes,sub-attributes, life positioning states, life positioning priorities,and dynamic layout and parameters associated with the user's life viewmay be automatically given some values. These values may be derived fromthe offerings of the partners, as shown in block 615. At block 620, theuser is allowed to update values that determine how and if theseattributes and/or sub-attributes are displayed. This may be due tochanges to the user's life and how the user's life positioning state,life positioning priorities, and user's life state is defined. At block625, options may be made available to enable the users to set securityfeatures and gatekeeping features, and other layout and informationparameters to customize the user's life view. As described, thesefeatures allow the users to configure the visibility of the user's lifeview and how or from whom the information is to be pulled on behalf ofthe user.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process that may beperformed by an information delivery system to allow the users to viewthe filtered information, in accordance with some embodiments. Theprocess is associated with operations that may be performed by theinformation delivery server 505 described with FIG. 5. When a userregisters with the information delivery system and create a useraccount, that user account is associated with a user's life view, asshown in block 705. The user may be provided options to configure theuser's life view. This may include configuring the layout for the user'slife view. At block 710, one or more partners may access the user's lifestate. The access of the user's life state is based on permissionsgranted by the users. The partners may use the user's life state togenerate filtered information that is aligned with the user's lifestate. At block 715, the filtered information is pushed by the partners.At block 720, the filtered information is presented to the user via theuser's life view, according to the user's life positioning states andlife positioning priorities.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process that may beperformed on an information delivery server to enable automaticallyupdating the user's life state, in accordance with some embodiments. Theprocess is associated with operations that may be performed by theinformation delivery server 505 described with FIG. 5. The process mayinclude tracking the user's behavior when the user visits a website ofthe partner. As described above, when the user visits the website of apartner, the partner may recognize that the user is a member of the sameinformation delivery system that the partner is associated with. Thepartner may customize the content of its website, filter the searchresults using this information, or customize the content of the user'slife view, according to the embodiments herein. The account of the userand the account of the partner with the information delivery system maybe related or connected. The recognition may be based on the informationstored locally on the client computing system of the user.Alternatively, the user id may be locally stored or stored in temporaryinternet / buffer files by associating with another user login, and thenthe attribute values from the user's life state may be obtained,refreshed, or updated.

The tracking operation may include interacting with the partner's serverand receiving the tracking information from the partner's server, asshown in block 805. At block 810, a test is performed to determine ifthe user's behavior is aligned with the user's life state. If the user'sbehavior is aligned, the process flow from block 810 back to block 805and the determination may continue. However, from the block 810, if theuser's behavior is not aligned, the process flow to block 815, where theuser's life state may be automatically updated to reflect the user'sbehavior. From the block 815, the process may flow back to block 805 andthe determination may continue. For some embodiments, this process maybe performed periodically. An automatic update option may be selected bythe user. In this process, the users will also be provided with theattribute values that are not aligned, which may help the user andpartner migrate towards better alignment. The user's life view will beupdated according to these changes.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process used to rate apartner, in accordance with some embodiments. At block 905, the usersare enabled to provide rating information for a partner. The rating isbased on how the filtered information from the partners is aligned withthe users' life states. If the alignment is not as expected, the ratingmay be low. A rating scale may be set by the management team associatedwith the information delivery system. At block 910, a test is performedto determine if the rating is acceptable. If the rating is acceptable,the process may flow back to block 905 to collect more ratings. It maybe noted that the rating of the partner may be evaluated aftercollecting a large collection of rating from many users. From the block910, if it is determined that the rating is not acceptable, the processmay flow to block 915 where the information from the partner may belimited. For example, the information pushed by the partner may includeunsolicited and/or unwanted advertising information, and the informationdelivery system may partially or completely block the information fromthe partner. For some embodiments, if the partner's rating is low, thenthe user may or may not want to limit the information from that partner.In other words, a low alignment rating for the partner may notnecessarily mean the user shows less interest in the information pushedby the partner. If the user wants to further limit, reduce, or prohibitinformation from a given partner, the user can use the security andgatekeeping settings to do that. At block 920, the information deliverysystem may change the status of the partner if necessary. For example,the partner may be placed suspended and its status may be changed from“active” to “suspended.” This type of disciplinary action may beperformed in aggregate. It may be performed by an administrator orsomeone with such authority, and not likely a function of automation.Partner ratings and the user's management of a partner's informationdelivery may also be accessible and reflected in the user's life view.

At block 925, the partner may be notified about the rating and relatedchanges. For example, warnings may be sent to the partner to notify thepartner about the change in status. The partner may fine tune itsfiltering mechanism to improve alignment. The process may flow from theblock 925 to the block 905. The partner rating operations may beperformed periodically or as needed.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process used to rate auser, in accordance with some embodiments. At block 1005, the partnersare enabled to provide rating information for a user. As describedabove, a user's life state involves many aspects of the user's life, andit is expected to change as the user experiences changes in the user'slife. The changes may be reflected in the user's behavior when, forexample, the user visits a website of a partner. The partner may trackthe user's behaviors, compare those behaviors with the user's lifestate, and give the user a rating. At block 1010, a test is performed todetermine if the rating for the user is acceptable. As with the ratingfor a pat tiler, a rating scale may be determined by the managementteam, and the scale may be the same or different from the scale used torate the pat tiler. If the rating is not acceptable, the process mayflow to block 1015, where the information delivery system may performoperations to restrict the amount of filtered information that is pushedon behalf of the user. Other operations may also be performed when therating is not acceptable. For example, warnings may be sent to the userto notify the user of the low rating; requests may be sent to the userto notify the user to update the user's life state; the status of theuser may be changed, etc. as shown in block 1020. From the block 1010,if the rating is acceptable, the process may flow back to block 1005 tocollect more ratings. It is possible that the rating of the user may beevaluated after collecting a large collection of rating from manypartners. From the block 1020, the process may also flow back to theblock 1005. The user rating operations may be performed periodically oras needed. Embodiments of the invention may merely notify the users ofthe low rating but may not cause any impact on the amount of filteredinformation being pushed to the user. As such the operations describedin block 1015 may not be performed. In these situations, the user mayuse the user ratings confidentially to manually work on improving theuser's life state or maybe just understanding it better. User ratingsand the partner's management of a user's life state may also beaccessible and reflected in the user's life view.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example flow diagram of a process that may beused to enable accessing the user's life view, in accordance with someembodiments. It may be noted that the operations described in thedifferent blocks of this process may not necessarily need to beperformed in sequence and some may be performed by different partners.The blocks are meant to convey different ways that the user's life viewmay be used in various situations.

At block 370, the user may use a partner's information on their lifeview to allow the partner to customize the user's visits to itswebsites, web pages, or other means of displaying information. This maybe useful when the user visits the partner's website. Information notconsistent with the user's life state or life view may be filtered fromthe website and only relevant information may be displayed. The partnermay associate the user id of the user with the user's life view or lifestate from the information delivery system, retrieve (or refresh orupdate) the user's life view, and customize its web pages or otherembodiments accordingly. The partner may provide a toggle to enable theuser to activate or deactivate the filtering of the partner'sinformation based on the user's life state or life view. At block 1120,the user may use the life view positioning states to determine how thevarious regions of the user's life view may be positioned for displayfor the user. At block 1130, the user may use the life view positioningpriority to determine how the various regions of the user's life viewmay be prioritized for positioning and displayed for the user.

From the descriptions above, embodiments of the inventions may include amethod for receiving information about and relevant to a user's lifefrom a user who is a registered member of an information deliverysystem. The information about and relevant to the user's life includesat least (a) demographic information, (b) ethnic information, (c) socialinformation, and (d) psychological information. The method also includesenabling the user to grant permissions to a partner to access theinformation about and relevant to the user's life, wherein the partneris also a registered member of the information delivery system, andwherein the user grants the permission to the partner by controllingvisibility of the partner to the information about and relevant to theuser's life and by controlling frequency, extent, type, and volume offiltered information that is pushed by the partner and displayed in theuser's life view. In addition, the method includes receiving thefiltered information from the partner, wherein the filtered informationis generated by the partner based on applying the information about andrelevant to the user's life to information of the partner, wherein theinformation about and relevant to the user's life is provided by theuser using a client computing system associated with the informationdelivery system, and wherein the information about and relevant to theuser's life is received by a server computing system associated with theinformation delivery system. Embodiments of the invention also include acomputer-readable media that includes instructions that perform theoperations similar to the method described above.

Although embodiments of this invention have been fully described withreference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that variouschanges and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in theart. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as beingincluded within the scope of embodiments of this invention as defined bythe appended claims. For example, specific examples are provided forshapes and materials; however, embodiments include those variationsobvious to a person skilled in the art, such as changing a shape orcombining materials together. Further, while some specific embodimentsof the invention have been shown the invention is not to be limited tothese embodiments. For example, several specific modules have beenshown. Each module performs a few specific functions. However, all ofthese functions could be grouped into one module or even broken downfurther into scores of modules. Most functions performed by electronichardware components may be duplicated by software emulation and viceversa. The invention is to be understood as not limited by the specificembodiments described herein, but only by scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:Receiving, prioritizing, positioning, and displaying in a virtualreality environment, information about and relevant to a user's lifefrom a user who is a registered member of an information deliverysystem, wherein the information about and relevant to the user's lifeincludes at least (a) demographic information, (b) ethnic information,(c) social information, and (d) psychological information; enabling theuser to interact within the virtual reality environment to grantpermissions to a partner to access the information about and relevant tothe user's life, wherein the partner is also a registered member of theinformation delivery system, and wherein the user grants the permissionto the partner by controlling visibility of the partner to theinformation about and relevant to the user's life and by controllingfrequency, extent, type, and volume of filtered information that ispushed by the partner, in order for the partner to display, in a virtualreality environment, customized information relevant to the user's lifeview; and receiving the filtered information from the partner, whereinthe filtered information is generated by the partner based on applyingthe information about and relevant to the user's life to information ofthe partner, wherein the information about and relevant to the user'slife is provided by the user using a client computing system and virtualreality interface associated with the information delivery system,wherein the information about and relevant to the user's life isreceived by a server computing system associated with the informationdelivery system, and wherein the information about the user's life isreceived, prioritized, positioned, and displayed in a virtual realityenvironment according to the user's life.
 2. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, further comprising: providing a life view in avirtual reality environment to enable the user to view the filteredinformation, wherein the filtered information may be a subset of theinformation of the partner, and wherein the life view associated withthe user is independently configurable from a life view associated withanother user of the information delivery system.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: providingand displaying information from a virtual reality marketplace to enablepartners to procure the information about the user's life. Wherein theuser may prioritize, position, and display information regardingmarketplace interests, bids, offers, and transactions.
 4. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: establishinga data structure to enable the user to provide the information about andrelevant to the user's life within a virtual reality environment, thedata structure including fields related to one another, wherein each ofthe fields is associated with a value, and wherein the data structureincludes multiple levels such that a field at a lower level is toprovide more detail information and value than a corresponding field ata higher level. Wherein information may be displayed, prioritized, andpositioned in a life view from multiple levels according to the user'slife.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising:automatically populating the fields of the data structure with a set ofbaseline values; and enabling the user to interact within a virtualreality environment to update the baseline values and non-baselinevalues to accurately reflect the user's life. Wherein baselineinformation may be displayed, prioritized, and positioned in a life viewfrom multiple levels according to the user's life.
 6. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising: enabling theuser to update the baseline values and the non-baseline values using amobile computing system and a mobile application associated with theinformation delivery system, wherein information may be displayed,prioritized, and positioned in a virtual reality life view in the mobileapplication on the mobile computing system.
 7. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, further comprising: enabling the user to interactwithin a virtual reality environment to rate the partner based onwhether the filtered information from the partner is aligned with theinformation about and relevant to the user's life; enabling the partnerto interact within a virtual reality environment to rate the user basedon whether the information about and relevant to the user's life isaligned with behavior of the user when the user visits a websiteassociated with the partner; wherein the user rating for the partner maybe used as a setting in the user's prioritization, positioning, anddisplaying of that partner's information in a life view; and wherein thepartner rating for the user may be visible in the user's prioritization,positioning, and displaying of that partner's information in a lifeview.
 8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:storing the information about and relevant to the user's life and lifeview in a secured relational database associated with the informationdelivery system; enabling the information about and relevant to theuser's life to be accessed by the partner when the user visits a virtualreality portal of the partner; and enabling the information about andrelevant to the user's life to be customized and accessed by the userthrough the user's life view within the virtual reality environment. 9.The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein customized virtualreality views are presented to the user when the user visits the virtualreality portal of the partner, wherein the customized virtual realityviews are generated by the partner based on the information about andrelevant to the user's life, and wherein the user may access thesecustomized virtual reality views from a virtual reality life view. 10.The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein filtered searchresults are presented to the user when the user visits the virtualreality portal of the partner, and wherein the filtered search resultsare generated by the partner based on search parameters provided by theuser and based on the information about and relevant to the user's life,wherein the search parameters and search results generated by thepartner may be factored into the information pushed by the partner intoa virtual reality life view.
 11. A non-transitory computer-readablemedia that stores instructions, which when executed by a machine, causethe machine to perform operations comprising: receiving informationabout a user's life from a user who is a registered member of aninformation delivery system, wherein the information about the user'slife includes at least demographic, ethnic, social and psychologicalinformation; enabling the user to set parameters to control (a) accessto the information about the user's life by a partner and (b) volume andfrequency of filtered information to be received from the partner onbehalf of the user, wherein the partner is also a registered member ofthe information delivery system; receiving the filtered information fromthe partner, wherein the filtered information is generated by applyingthe parameters to information of the partner; and prioritizing,positioning, and presenting the filtered information to a virtualreality user life view.
 12. The computer-readable media of claim 11,wherein the user further sets the parameters to control (a) frequency ofreceiving the filtered information from the partner, and (b) priority,order, and customized filtering of information to be delivered to a userlife view based on the user's life and display preferences.
 13. Thecomputer-readable media of claim 11, further comprising: establishing adata structure to enable the user to provide the information about theuser's life in a virtual reality environment, the data structureincluding fields related to one another, wherein each of the fields isassociated with a value representing one aspect of the user's life;automatically populating the fields of the data structure with a set ofbaseline values; enabling the user to manually update the baselinevalues or non-baseline values to more accurately reflect the user'slife; enabling the user to rate the partner based on whether thefiltered information pushed by the partner is aligned with theinformation about the user's life; enabling the partner to interactwithin a virtual reality environment to rate the user based on whetherthe information about the user's life is aligned with behavior of theuser when the user visits a virtual reality portal associated with thepartner; and presenting the baseline values or updated values, and thepartner and user ratings, in a virtual reality user life view, accordingto the user's prioritization, positioning, and custom display settings.14. The computer-readable media of claim 13, further comprising:providing a virtual reality marketplace for the partner or other usersto purchase the information about the user's life; and enabling thepartner to use the information about the user's life to customizevirtual reality views of the partner when the user visits a virtualreality portal of the partner; enabling marketplace information to bedisplayed in a virtual reality user life view, according to priority,positioning, and custom display settings; and enabling a user tointeract within the virtual reality environment and use marketplaceinformation in the user's virtual reality life view.
 15. Thecomputer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the marketplace is anauction-based marketplace, wherein the customized virtual reality viewsinclude views that present filtered search results when the virtualreality portal is associated with an internet search engine, wherein thecustomized life view include filtered, prioritized, custom positionedinformation, and custom settings associated with a life state, marketplace, and life view.
 16. The computer-readable media of claim 13,further comprising enabling the user to cause the values of the fieldsof the data structure to be updated using a mobile virtual realitydevices associated with the information delivery system; and wherein theuser may access, interact with, and modify settings for a life view. 17.The computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein the mobile applicationis configured to enable the user to provide user experience and to causeone or more values of the fields of the data structure to be updatedaccording to the user experience, and wherein the updated informationand user experience may be accessed, updated, and interacted with in auser's virtual reality life view.
 18. A system for simulating a virtualreality environment, comprising: an information delivery serverconnected to a network, the information delivery server configured to:(a) enable a user to provide information about a user's life using aclient computing system and virtual reality interface coupled with theinformation delivery server, wherein the information about the user'slife includes at least demographic, ethnic, social and psychologicalinformation, and wherein the information about the user's life is storedin a database coupled with the information delivery server, the clientcomputing system and virtual reality interface connected to the network;(b) enable the user to interact with the simulated virtual realityenvironment to set parameters that control access to the informationabout the user's life by a partner and volume and frequency ofinformation to be received from the partner on behalf of the user,wherein the information received from the partner is to be aligned withthe information about the user's life, and wherein the partner isassociated with a partner server connected to the network; (c) enablethe partner to rate the user based on whether behavior of the userwithin the virtual reality environment is aligned with the informationabout the user's life; and (d) enable the user to rate the partner basedon whether the information received from the partner is aligned with theinformation about the user's life. (e) enable the user to access,update, and interact with a user life view, within the virtual realityenvironment, which contains custom information, wherein the custominformation may be further customized by prioritizing, positioning, andother user defined custom settings that change how the information isdisplayed to a user in a user life view within the virtual realityenvironment.
 19. The system of claim 18, wherein the informationdelivery server is further configured to (a) provide a virtual realitymarketplace to enable the partner to purchase the information about theuser's life and (b) provide a life view to present the informationreceived from the partner to the user according to priorities,positioning settings, and other user defined settings.
 20. The system ofclaim 18, wherein the user and the partner are registered with theinformation delivery server, and wherein the information delivery serveris further configured to (a) receive updated information about theuser's life from the user via a mobile computing device and virtualreality interface, and (b) enable the partner to access the informationabout the user's life to customize the virtual reality portal of thepartner according to the information about the user's life; and (c)enable the user to access, update, and interact with a user virtualreality life view via a mobile virtual reality device.